Posts Tagged ‘Devin McCourty’

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

Believe it or not, Darius Butler was a prototypical Patriots defensive back draft pick.

NEPD Editor: Doug Kyed

Entering the 2012 NFL Draft, there seems to be one common sentiment among Patriots fans, “We need defensive backs!”

One of the chief reasons why the Patriots need defensive backs is their spotty history in the draft taking corners and safeties.

Throughout the twelve seasons Bill Belichick has been Head Coach, the Patriots have taken 21 defensive backs, four remain with the team.

I put together a spreadsheet containing all of those players vitals, hoping to come up with some patterns to possibly try to determine what the Patriots look for in a DB, and which players in the 2012 class they’ll potentially be looking at. (Thanks to NFLDraftScout.com and the Boston.com Draft Database for all combine results)

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

NEPD Staff Writer: Doug Kyed

Can you believe it’s already week 17? It seems like just yesterday we were all excited about last year’s defense with the addition of Leigh Bodden and Ty Warren coming back from injury. That didn’t go so well, but the season has so far.

A lot has changed since the last time the Bills and Patriots faced each other. The aforementioned Bodden actually started in that game at RCB. Some other interesting names that participated in that game: Brandon Spikes, Josh Barrett, Landon Cohen and Jermaine Cunningham.

There’s a lot of talk about Tom Brady’s shoulder injury and getting out of this game without any more major injuries, I’m more concerned about getting players back from injury in this game.

Here are some things I’m looking for in Sunday’s rematch against the Bills:

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

An in-form Devin McCourty would be an additional Christmas present for Patriots fans. (Photo: ICON SMI)

NEPD Staff Writer: Doug Kyed

What we saw on Saturday was enough to convince me that this team will be good enough to compete for a Super Bowl. I’m a natural optimist, but when a team can come back from as many issues as the Dolphins game presented the Patriots with, that might mean we have a special team on our hands.

Friday, November 25th, 2011

Stop. This. Man. (Photo: ICON SMI)

NEPD Staff Writer: Doug Kyed

Whenever I’ve looked at the Patriots upcoming schedule recently, this is the game that keeps standing out. Would this be the Patriots’ biggest remaining challenge? Who will we actually see play in this game? Will we see a classic Andy Reid mistake? How will the Patriots deal with a scrambling QB?

With Michael Vick, Jeremy Maclin, Desean Jackson, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and now Nnamdi Asomugha all knicked up, this might be the best time for the Patriots to be facing off against Philly.

Sunday, September 25th, 2011

Nightmare.

NEPD Staff Writer: Doug Kyed

That one wasn’t fun. You’ve got to give the Bills credit though, they’ve had two incredible second half comebacks in a row now. Coming back from 21 down and winning 34-31 is impressive no matter how much help you had from the other team.

To clear up any confusion, it made sense for Belichick to take that timeout after the near Fred Jackson TD. The clock started running as soon as the play wasn’t ruled a TD. Belichick just wanted the 13 seconds that had run down after the play back onto the clock.